How many people play Fortnite? After bursting onto the scene in 2017, Fortnite has since become a worldwide phenomenon, amassing 650 million players across the globe as of November 2023, up from 400 million in May 2021. Why is Fortnite so popular? The reasons Fortnite has become such a global hit are clear. Not only is the game free to play, but it is also available on most gaming platforms. On top of this, Fortnite's most popular gameplay mode is the battle royale mode, in which up to 100 players fight it at once. This means that the re-playability of the game is infinite – each game is unique. Keeping players engaged with live services Fortnite Battle Royale is also a live service game, meaning that the game receives regular content updates to keep players engaged. Each season of the game roughly lasts 10 weeks and features events such as online concerts, and cosmetic changes. The game’s current iteration is called "鬼HUNTERS (Demon HUNTERS)" with a theme around yōkai, hunters and Japanese culture. Live service games are here to stay By offering cross-platform, multiplayer gaming with a live service schedule, Fortnite covers two of the biggest gaming industry trends, which the majority of the industry intend to follow. A 2023 of global gaming studios found that more than nine in ten studios were either working on or intending to release a live services title. With regular, cadenced, and themed updates to free-to-play games, studios motivate players to keep returning and, eventually, spend not only time but also money on the game. This seems to work for the parent company Epic Games – Fortnite was one of the most downloaded PlayStation F2P game in the EU and North America in 2024.

Having burst onto the scene in 2017, Fortnite has since become a worldwide phenomenon, amassing almost 250 million players across the globe as of March 2019. Having first been released in July 2017, the battle royale game took just two weeks to reach 10 million players, a figure which doubled to 20 million players after only six weeks. In less than a year, the game had acquired a staggering 125 million players.

Since its release in 2017, Fortnite has become one of the most popular games in the world. The Battle Royale game, in which up to 100 players fight it out at one time, is especially loved amongst the younger generations as **** percent of Fortnite players are aged between 18 and 24, and a further **** percent are between ** and 34.

The rise of Fortnite Having amassed over *** million registered users in just two years, it is safe to say that Fortnite is nothing short of a gaming phenomenon. The developers of the hit, Epic Games, certainly picked the right time to enter the market as revenue in the Battle Royale premium console segment amounted to *** billion U.S. dollars in 2018 and was estimated to more than double to *** billion U.S. dollars in 2019. Fortnite undoubtedly contributed to this estimated jump in revenue as the game generated *** million U.S. dollars in May 2018 alone and it also raked in considerable revenue through its mobile game. If Fortnite itself is free to play, how is it generating so much money?

In-game purchases key to success The answer is in-game purchases. Regular currency will not get you very far in the Fortnite universe, but it will give you access to V-Bucks, which will unlock everything from Fortnite outfits to celebrations (emotes) and gliders. It seems that players are spending their hard-earned money on making their Fortnite characters stand out from the crowd, with over two-thirds of Fortnite fans confessing to spending money on in-game purchases. The most popular upgrades were to the characters themselves and their outfits, whilst almost ** percent of in-game spending was on emotes, so that the victorious players could celebrate their victories in style.

According to a February 2020 survey of Fortnite gamers in the United States, respondents had spent an average of ****** U.S. dollars on in-game purchases. Overall, about ** percent of responding Fortnite audiences had spent money on the free-to-play title.

According to a February 2020 survey of Fortnite gamers in the United States, ** percent of respondents played Fortnite roughly *** to *** hours per week, while **** percent admitted to playing for ** weekly hours or more.

Content The dataset contains the Grand Finals statistics for the NA Central region. Day1 consists of the first 6 games, and Day2 contains the last 6.

Date: Day 1. Each Grand Finals is a two day event. The Date column lists the first day of competition. The second day of competition is just one day later.

Season: The Chapter and Season of the Grand Finals. CH - Chapter; S - Season

Place: Final Placement at the end of the two day Grand Finals

Player1, Player2: The names of the two players in each duo competing together.

Points: Total number of points at the end of the two day Grand Finals.

Wins: Total number of wins at the end of the two day Grand Finals.

Avg. Points: Average number of points scored per duo over the 12 games.

Avg. Place: Average placement by the duo over the 12 games.

Total Eliminations: Total number of eliminations at the end of the two day Grand Finals.

Avg. Elims: Average eliminations by the duo over the 12 games.

K/D: Eliminations (Kills) / Death Rate

Game1-12 Place: Placement by the duo for each of the 12 games.

Game1-12 Elims: Eliminations by the duo for each of the 12 games.

Missing Data Missing data in the csv is handled through "-1" in the Game Place/Elim columns. These can occur if a duo doesn't load into the match, or a game crash prior to the match.

Acknowledgements I collected the data by hand from Fortnite Tracker website (https://fortnitetracker.com/). The public Fortnite Tracker API was disabled.

Downloadable content is a way of enhancing the video gaming experience for the players by giving them access to exciting new content which can range from the purely aesthetic changes to upgrades to characters and items. During a 2019 survey of gamers, it was found that they spent an average of ** U.S. dollars each year on in-game transactions in League of Legends.

The reasons why Fortnite has become such a global hit are clear to see. Not only is the game free to play, but it is also available on most gaming platforms. On top of this, the Battle Royale-style, in which up to 100 players fight it out at one time, mean that the re-playability of the game is infinite – each game is unique. However, while the game itself is free to download, users are encouraged to purchase downloadable content (DLC) to enhance their gaming experience. In 2019, Fornite users in the United States spent an average of 82 U.S. dollars on DLC. The most common in-game purchases included upgrades to characters and outfits, as well as to the gliders which transport the players into the battle arena. This model for generating revenue seems to have been a success for Epic Games as player spending on the Fortnite mobile app consistently reaches million of U.S. dollars each month.

First released in 2017, the battle royale game Fortnite has become popular with audiences worldwide. The game also has a sizeable eSports segment, and Kyle Giersdorf, also known as Bugha, is the most successful Fortnite eSports player, with lifetime earnings from the game of 3.77 million U.S. dollars. Second-ranked David Wang, also known as Aqua, has accumulated about 2.19 million U.S. dollars in winnings from the game.

First released at the start of 2017, PUBG: Battlegrounds (previously known as PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) is one of the most popular games on Steam and had 944,484 peak concurrent players in the last recorded month, July 2025. The highest number of concurrent players was recorded in January 2018 at 3.24 million. One of the biggest games on Steam PUBG gained a devoted legion of fans in a short space of time after its release, and cumulative unit sales of the game hit 75 million in December 2021. The game has also been critically acclaimed — it won the Best Multiplayer Game at The Game Awards in 2017 and its free-to-play mobile version for Android and iOS, released in 2018, was nominated for Best Mobile Game at The 2018 Game Awards. This critical success has also translated into commercial success, as the game generated millions of U.S. dollars of revenue, most successfully in the United States. On January 12, 2022, the game has become free to play. Battle of the Battle Royale games PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is an online battle royale game in which up to 100 hundred players battle it out until there is only one player or one team left standing. This format of game has become very popular in recent years. While PUBG has a strong following, especially on Steam, it has come under pressure from rival battle royale game Fortnite. First released just several months after PUBG, Fortnite has since become a cultural phenomenon, amassing 500 million registered users in just six years. As of 2025, both PUB and Fortnite are still going strong with their loyal audiences.

Based on a ranking of the all-time prize money earned by the leading eSports players in Fortnite from Finland, BELAEU (the gamer tag of Lassi Kallio) outperformed all other players earning a total of 180,555 U.S. dollars as of August 2025. Fortnite on Twitch The popularity of Fortnite on the streaming platform Twitch waxed and waned greatly throughout the months between January 2018 and April 2025. The highest peak occurred in July 2018, with over 205,000 viewers. Since then, the viewership of Fortnite events reached an average of 49,000 viewers. Prize money in eSports Fortnite tournaments had a cumulative prize pool of approximately 0.61 million U.S. dollars in 2025. The leader of the ranking that year was DOTA 2, with an impressive 6.84 million U.S. dollars in prizes, followed by Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rocket League.

In 2024, children and teenagers in the United States spent an average of 152 minutes playing Roblox games via their mobile devices. By comparison, weekly engagement levels with Minecraft app among players aged 18 and younger decreased from 48 daily minutes in 2023 to 40 minutes in 2024.

In June 2024, Fortnite was the top battle royale title across Twitch, with approximately 74,450 average concurrent viewers. Apex Legends, which is published by Electronic Arts, was ranked second with 29,246 ACV during the measured period. Twitch accounted for the majority of the live-streaming audiences of both titles.